Atletico Madrid 2-1 Borussia Dortmund - Atleti hold on to take advantage to quarter-final second leg
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ByOli Gent
Updated 10/04/2024 at 23:34 GMT+1
Atletico Madrid will take a slight advantage to their UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg after they held off a late Borussia Dortmund fightback to seal a 2-1 win. Dortmund began nervously and went to the interval two goals down following strikes from Rodrigo De Paul and Samuel Lino. However, the home side had to hold on for the win after Sebastien Haller halved the deficit.
Atletico Madrid v Borussia Dortmund highlights - UEFA Champions League action as Atleti hold on
Atletico Madrid claimed what turned out to be a hard-fought 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund at the Wanda Metropolitano in their Champions League quarter-final first leg.
Goals from Rodrigo de Paul and Samuel Lino were the difference between the two sides, with an error-ridden away side riddled with nerves at a bouncing and intimidating cauldron in Madrid.
In an uncharacteristic start for a Diego Simeone side, the hosts started with an aggressive press, harnessing the raucous home support, and they seized upon a Dortmund error inside five minutes as Ian Maatsen’s loose pass was capitalised on by Rodrigo De Paul, who gobbled up the opportunity to put the hosts in the ascendancy.
It was two just after the half hour as Lino doubled the advantage, slotting home after a sweeping move that stemmed from a Nahuel Molina long throw.
The two Dortmund centre-backs, Mats Hummels and Nico Schlotterbeck, got themselves in a tangle underneath it, and the ball fell kindly for Alvaro Morata to poke into the path of Antoine Griezmann, who found the onrushing Lino with a delicate scooped pass, and the Brazilian wing-back stroked home.
Dortmund halved the deficit with 10 minutes to go as substitutes Julian Brandt and Sebastien Haller combined, with Brandt’s deft pass around the corner fell kindly for the Ivorian, who swivelled on a sixpence and fired instinctively into the bottom corner.
The German side continued to bang on the door in search of an equaliser, and young English forward Jamie Bynoe-Gittens went close with a powerful left-footed effort that flicked off the head of Cesar Azpilicueta en route to it clipping the crossbar.
However, Atletico did what they usually do: they clung on - somehow - and they will head to Dortmund with a slender advantage.
Talking point - Where was Brandt?
Edin Terzic made the strange decision to bench his prime creator, Julian Brandt, and that posed Dortmund all sorts of problems in the first half.
Yes, Atletico were all over them like a rash with their high-octane pressing, but Brandt would have been, and usually is, the man that knits the Schwarzgelben’s passing moves together.
Without him, they were missing his metronomic presence, instead playing risky balls into midfielders who didn’t want it on the half-turn with rampant opposition players hassling and harrying them.
When Brandt was introduced at half-time, Dortmund were a different side, threatening down the flanks and through the centre of the pitch, where the German had positioned himself.
His header crashed the crossbar in the final minute of injury time, and that could have salvaged what would have been a well-deserved draw on the balance of the second half, but the first-half performance will be a stern lesson for Terzic not to tamper with his team selection so radically before a big game.
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‘Out of nowhere!’ – Haller cuts the arrears for Dortmund against Atleti
Player of the match - Samuel Lino, Atletico Madrid
The Brazilian was a real threat down the left flank for the hosts, pinning back Julian Ryerson and getting the home side up the pitch.
He was the extra man in the box when Atleti attacked down the right, looking to ghost in at the far post for when Molina or Griezmann got on the ball.
That was exactly how he scored the hosts’ second, being the spare man on the far side, picked out expertly by Griezmann, before slotting home for a crucial second that has his side’s noses in front narrowly going into a tricky second leg.
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Atletico Madrid - Borussia Dortmund / Champions League
Image credit: Getty Images
Player ratings
Atletico: Oblak 7, Azpilicueta 6, Witsel 6, Gimenez 7, Molina 6, Llorente 7, Koke 6, de Paul 7, Lino 8, Griezmann 7, Morata 6. Subs: Barrios 6, Correa 6, Saul 6, Riquelme 6, Savic 6.
Dortmund: Kobel 7, Ryerson 5, Hummels 5, Schlotterbeck 5, Maatsen 5, Sabitzer 5, Can 5, Sancho 7, Nmecha 5, Adeyemi 5, Fullkrug 5. Subs: Brandt 7, Haller 7, B-Gittens 7, Reus 6, Ozcan 6.
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‘Calamity’ - De Paul accepts Dortmund gift to give Atleti the lead
Match highlights
5’: GOAL! ATLETICO MADRID 1-0 BORUSSIA DORTMUND (DE PAUL) The perfect start for Atleti, as Dortmund gift them an opener! The visitors try to play out expansively through Kobel and the inverted Maatsen, but it's seized upon by Rodrigo de Paul, who pounces and slots home!
33’: GOAL! ATLETICO MADRID 2-0 BORUSSIA DORTMUND (LINO) It's two, and it's Samuel Lino. It's been coming as well. Dortmund play themselves into trouble once more as Hummels and Schlotterbeck get themselves in a tangle from the long throw, with Morata poking a pass into Griezmann, before Griezmann scoops a pass into the onrushing wing-back, who tidily slots home beyond Kobel for his seventh goal of the campaign.
82’: GOAL! ATLETICO MADRID 2-1 BORUSSIA DORTMUND (HALLER) Wow! That wasn't in the script! Dortmund do halve the deficit, and the two substitutes combine, with Sebastien Haller spinning on a sixpence from Brandt's deft pass around the corner!
88’: OFF THE BAR! What a run, and what a strike from Bynoe-Gittens! He darts towards the box and rifles a shot with his left, and it flicks off the head of Azpilicueta, onto the woodwork, and behind!
90+5’: OFF THE BAR! Ryerson swings in the cross, and Brandt leaps highest! It thumps the bar, and that must be it!
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